The Anything Box Part 10

"No. Well, at the beginning of school, he actually paid attention duringscience period when we were having the Solar System." Miss Amberly halfskipped, trying to match her steps with his strides. "The first day or so heleafed through that section a dozen times a day. Just looking, I guess,because apparently nothing sank in. On the test over the unit he filled in allthe blanks with baby and green cheese misspelled, of course."

They paused at the closed door of the cla.s.sroom. "Here, I'll unlock it,"said Miss Amberly. She bent to the keyhole, put the key in, lifted hard on thek.n.o.b and turned the key. 'There's a trick to it. This new foundation is stillsettling."

They went into the cla.s.sroom which seemed lonely and full of echoes with nostudents in it. Bennett nodded approval of the plants on the window sills andthe neatness of the library table.

"I have him sitting clear in back, so he won't disrupt any more of thechildren than absolutely necessary.""Disrupt? Miss Amberly, just exactly what does he do? Poke, punch, talk,tear up papers?"

Miss Amberly looked startled as she thought it over. "No. Between his wildsilent rages when he's practically impossible-you know those, he spends mostof them sitting in the corner of your office-he doesn't actually do anythingout of the way. At the very most he occasionally mutters to himself. He justsits there, either with his elbows on the desk and both hands over his ears,or he leans on one hand or the other and stares at nothing-apparently bored todeath. Yet any child who sits near him, gets restless and talkative and kindof- well, what-does-it-matter-ish. They won't work. They disturb others. Theycreate disturbances. They think that because Keeley gets along without doingany work, that they can too. Why didn't they pa.s.s him on a long time ago andget rid of him? He could stay in school a hundred years and never learnanything." Her voice was bitter.

Bennett looked at Keeley's desk. The whole table was spiderwebbed withlines drawn in a silvery ink that betrayed a sort of bas-relief to hisinquiring fingers. At irregular intervals, blobs of gum or wax or some suchstuff was stuck, mostly at junctions of lines. There were two circles on thedesk, about elbow-sized and s.p.a.ced about right to accommodate two leaningelbows. Each circle was a network of lines. Bennett traced with his finger twofine coppery wires that were stuck to the side of the desk. Following themdown into the desk drawer, he rummaged through an unsightly ma.s.s of papers andfished out two little metallic disks, one on each wire.

"Why those must be what he was looking for when he was so worked up lastweek," said Miss Amberly. "They look a little bit like a couple of bottle capsstuck together, don't they?"

Bennett turned them over in his hands, then he ran his fingers over themarked-up desk, noting that the lines ran together at the edge of the desk andended at the metal table support Bennett laughed, "Looks like Keeley has been bitten by the radio bug. I'dguess these for earphones." He tossed the disks in his hand. "And all thesemysterious lines are probably his interpretation of a schematic diagram. Isuppose he gets so bored doing nothing that he dreamed this little game up forhimself. Where did he get this ink, though? It's not school ink." He ran hisfingers over the raised lines again.

"I don't know. He brings it to school in a little pill bottle," said MissAmberly. "I tried to confiscate it when he started marking things up again,but he seemed inclined to make an issue of it and it wasn't worth running therisk of another of his wild ones. The janitor says he can't wash the stuff offand the only time I've seen any rub off was when I wiped away the wet markstoday."

Bennett examined the metal disks. "Let's try this out," he said, halfjoking. He slid into the desk and leaned his elbows in the circles. He pressedthe disks to his ears. A look of astonishment flicked across his face.

"Hey! I hear something! Listen!"

He gestured Miss Amberly down to him and pressed the earphones to her ears.She closed her eyes against his nearness and could hear nothing but thetumultuous roar of her heart in her ears. She shook her head.

"I don't hear anything."

"Why sure! Some odd sort of . . ." He listened again. "Well, no. I guessyou're right," he said ruefully.

He put the earphones back in the desk.

"Harmless enough, I suppose. Let him have his radio if it gives him anysatisfaction. He certainly isn't getting any out of his schoolwork. This mightbe a way to reach him though. Next week I'll check with a friend of mine andsee if I can get any equipment for Keeley. It might be an answer to ourproblem."

But next week Mr. Bennett had no time to do any checking with his friend.The school found itself suddenly in the middle of a virus epidemic.

Monday he stared aghast at the attendance report. Tuesday he started grimlydown his subst.i.tute list. Wednesday he reached the bottom of it. Thursday hegroaned and taught a third grade himself. Friday he dragged himself to thephone and told his secretary to carry on as best she could and went shakingback to bed. He was cheered a little by the report that the third gradeteacher had returned, but he had a sick, sunken feeling inside occasioned bythe news that for the first time Miss Amberly was going to be absent.

"But don't worry, Mr. Bennett," the secretary had said, "we have a goodsubst.i.tute. A man subst.i.tute. He just got here from back east and he hasn'tfiled his certificate yet, but he came well recommended."

So Mr. Bennett pulled the covers up to his chin and wondered, quiteirrelevantly, if Miss Amberly had a sunken feeling too, because he was absent.

Miss Amberly's seventh grade buzzed and hummed when at eight-thirty Miss Amberly was nowhere to be seen. When the nine o'clock bell pulled all thestudents in from the playfield, they tumbled into their seats, eyes wide, asthey surveyed the subst.i.tute. Glory May took one look at the broad shouldersand black hair and began to fish the bobby pins out of her curls that weresupposed to stay up until evening so they would be perfect for the datetonight-with a seventeen-year-old high school man. The other girls stared athim covertly from behind books or openly with slack-jawed wonder.

The boys, with practiced eyes, looked him over and decided that even if oldlady Amberly was absent, they had better behave.

And of course, at ten past nine, Keeley sauntered in, carrying hisarithmetic book by one corner, the pages fluttering and fanning as he came.The subst.i.tute took little notice of him beyond asking his name and waitingfor him to slump into his desk before going on with the opening exercises.

Keeley arranged himself in his usual pose, the metal disks pressed to hisears, his elbows in the webbed circles. He sat for a minute blank-faced, andthen he began to frown. He pressed his hands tighter to his ears. He tracedthe lengths of the coppery wire with inquiring fingers. He checked the blobsand chunks of stuff stuck on the lines. He reamed his ears out with his little finger and listened again. Finally his squirming and wiggling called forth a"Please settle down, Keeley, you're disturbing the cla.s.s," from thesubst.i.tute.

"Go soak your head," muttered Keeley, half audibly. He pushed the earphonesback into the drawer and slouched sullenly staring at the ceiling.

By noon, Keeley, the blank-faced, no-doer, had become Keeley, thedisrupting Demon. He pulled hair and tore papers. He swaggered up the aisle tothe pencil sharpener, shoving books off every desk as he went. He shot paperclips with rubber bands and sc.r.a.ped his thumb nail down the blackboard, ahalf-dozen times. By some wild contortion, he got both his feet up on top ofhis desk, and when the impossible happened and he jackknifed under the deskwith his heels caught on the edge, it took the subst.i.tute and the two biggestboys to extract him.

By the time he got out of the cafeteria, leaving behind him a trail ofbroken milk bottles, spilled plates and streaked clothes, Miss Ensign wasgasping in the teachers' room, "And last year I prayed he'd wake up and beginto function. Lor-dee! I hope he goes back to sleep again!"

Keeley simmered down a little after lunch until he tried the earphonesagain and then he sat sullenly glowering at his desk, muttering threateningly,a continuous annoying stream of disturbance. Finally the subst.i.tute saidplacidly, "Keeley, you're disturbing the cla.s.s again."

"Aw shaddup! You meathead, you!" said Keeley.

There was a stricken silence in the room as everyone stared aghast atKeeley.

The subst.i.tute looked at him dispa.s.sionately. "Keeley, come here."

"Come and get me if you think you can!" snarled Keeley.

A horrified gasp swept the room and Angie began to sob in terror.

The subst.i.tute spoke again, something n.o.body caught, but the result wasunmistakable. Keeley jerked as though he had been stabbed and his eyes widenedin blank astonishment. The subst.i.tute wet his lips and spoke again, "Comehere, Keeley."

And Keeley came, stumbling blindly down the aisle, to spend the rest of theafternoon until Physical Ed hunched over his open book in the seat in thefront corner, face to wall.

At PE period, he stumbled out and stood lankly by the basketball court,digging a hole in the ground with the flapping sole of one worn shoe. Thecoach, knowing Keeley in such moods, pa.s.sed him by with a snort ofexasperation and turned to the clamoring wildness of the rest of the boys.

When the three fifty-five bell rang, the seventh grade readied itself forhome by shoving everything into the drawers and slamming them resoundingly. Asusual, the worn one shot out the other side of the desk and it and itscontents had to be scrambled back into place before a wholly unnatural silence fell over the room, a silence through which could be felt almost tangibly, thestraining to be first out the door, first to the bus line, first in thebus-just to be first.

The subst.i.tute stood quietly by his desk. "Keeley, you will stay afterschool."

The announcement went almost unnoticed. Keeley had spent a good many halfhours after school this year with Miss Amberly sweating out page after page inhis tattered books.

Keeley sat in his own desk, his hands pressed tightly together, his heartfluttering wildly in his throat as he listened to the receding clatter ofhurried feet across the patio. Something inside him cried. "Wait! Wait forme!" as the sounds died away.

The subst.i.tute came down the aisle and turned one of the desks so he could sit facing Keeley. He ran a calculating eye over Keeley's desk.

"Not bad," he said. "You have done well with what materials you had. Butwhy here at school where everyone could see?"

Keeley gulped. "Have you seen where I live? Couldn't keep nothing there.Come a rain, wouldn't be no house left. Besides Aunt Mo's too dang nosey.She'd ask questions. She know I ain't as dumb as I look. Ever body at schoolthinks I'm a dope."

"You certainly have been a stinker today," grinned the subst.i.tute. "Yourusual behavior?"

Keeley squirmed. "Naw. I kinda like old lady Amberly. I was mad because Icouldn't get nothing on my radio. I thought it was busted. I didn't know youwas here."

"Well, I am. Ready to take you with me. Our preliminary training periodshows you to be the kind of material we want."

"Gee!" Keeley ran his tongue across his lips. "That's swell. Where's yourship?"

"It's down by the county dump. Just beyond the hill in back of the tin cansection. Think you can find it tonight?"

"Sure. I know that dump like my hand, but..."

"Good. We'll leave Earth tonight. Be there by dark." The subst.i.tute stoodup. So did Keeley, slowly.

"Leave Earth?"

"Of course," impatiently. "You knew we weren't from Earth when we firstmade contact."

"When will I get to come back?"

"There's no reason for you to, ever. We have work geared to yourcapabilities to keep you busy and happy from here on out."

"But," Keeley sat down slowly, "leave Earth forever?"

"What has Earth done for you, that you should feel any ties to it?" Thesubst.i.tute sat down again.

"I was born here."

"To live like an animal in a cardboard hut that the next rain will melt away. To wear ragged clothes and live on beans and sc.r.a.p vegetables except forfree lunch at school."

"I don't get no free lunch!" retorted Keeley, "I work ever morning in theCafeteria for my lunch. I ain't no charity case."

"But Keeley, you'll have whole clothes and good quarters and splendid foodin our training center."

"Food and clothes ain't all there is to living."

"No, I grant you that," admitted the subst.i.tute. "But the world calls youstupid and useless. We can give you the opportunity to work to your fullcapacity, to develop your mind and abilities to the level you're capable ofachieving instead of sitting day after day droning out kindergarten pap with aroomful of stupid ..."

"I won't have to do that all my life. When I get to high school. .."

"With marks like yours? No one's going to ask you how smart you are.

They're going to see all the 4s and 5s and all the minuses on the citizenshipside of your card and you'll never make it into high school. Besides, Keeley,you don't need all these petty little steps. Right now, you're trained in mathand physics past college level. You'll go crazy marking time."

"There's other stuff to learn besides them things."

"Granted, but are you learning them? Spell because."

"Bee-that's not important!"

"To this earth it is. What has changed you, Keeley? You were wild to go..."

"I got to thinking," said Keeley. "All afternoon I been thinking. How comeyou guys pick brains off of Earth? What's the matter with your world, whereever it is? You guys ain't leveling with me somewhere."

The subst.i.tute met Keeley's eyes. "There's nothing sinister about us," hesaid. "We do need brains. Our world is -different. We don't range fromimbeciles to geniuses like you do. The people are either geniuses on yourscale or just vegetables, capable of little more than keeping themselvesalive. And yet, from the vegetable ranks come the brains, but too seldom forour present needs. We're trying to find ways to smooth out that gap betweenthe haves and the have-nots, and some years ago we lost a lot of our 'brains'in an experiment that got out of hand. We need help in keeping civilizationgoing for us until more of the native-born fill in the vacancy. So werecruit."

"Why not pick on grownups then? There's plenty of big bugs who'd probablygive an arm to even look at your ship."

"That's true," nodded the subst.i.tute, "but we like them young so we cantrain them to our ways. Besides, we don't want to attract attention. Fewgrownups could step out of the world without questions being asked, especiallyhighly trained specialists. So we seek out kids like you who are too smart fortheir own good in the environments where they happen to be. Sometimes theyknow they're smart. Sometimes we have to prove it to them. And they're nevermissed for long when we take them. Who is there to ask questions if you shouldleave with me?"

"Aunt Mo," snapped Keeley, "And-and-"

"A half-crazy old hag-no one else!"

"You shut up about Aunt Mo. She's mine. I found her. And there is toosomeone else-Miss Amberly. She'd care!"

"Dried up old maid school teacher!" the subst.i.tute returned bitingly.

"For a genius, you're pretty dumb!" retorted Keeley. "She ain't so very oldand she ain't dried up and as soon as her and Mr. Bennett stop batting so manywords around, she won't be an old maid no more neither!"

"But two out of a world! That's not many to hold a fellow back from all wecould give you."

"Two's two," replied Keeley. "How many you got that will care if you getback from here or not?"

The subst.i.tute stood up abruptly, his face expressionless. "Are you comingwith me, Keeley?"

"If I did, why couldn't I come back sometime?" Keeley's voice was pleading."I bet you know a lot of stuff that'd help Earth."

"And we should give it to Earth, just like that?" asked the subst.i.tutecoldly.

"As much as I should leave Earth, just like that," Keeley's voice was justas icy.

"We could argue all night, Keeley," said the subst.i.tute. "Maybe it'd helpif I told you that Earth is in for a pretty sticky time of it and this is yourchance to get out of it."

"Can you guys time-travel too?" asked Keeley.

"Well, no. But we can take into consideration the past and the present andpostulate the future."

"Sounds kind of guessy to me. The future ain't an already built road. We're making some of it right now that I betcha wasn't in your figgering. Nope. Ifwe're in for a sticky time, I'll get stuck too, and maybe do some of theunsticking."

"That's your decision?"

"Yep." Keeley stood up and began to stack his books.

The subst.i.tute watched him silently, then he said, "Suppose I shouldinsist?"

Keeley grinned at him. "I can be awful dumb. Ask anybody."

"Very well. It has to be voluntary or not at all. You might as well give methose earphones." He held out his hand. "They'll be of no use to you with ourtraining ship gone."

Keeley snapped the wires and hefted the disks in his hand. Then he put themin his pocket.

"I'll keep them. Someday I'll figure out how come this setup works withoutwords. If I can't, we've got men who can take stuff like this and figger outthe other end of it."

"You're not so dumb, Keeley," the subst.i.tute smiled suddenly.

"No, I'm not," said Keeley. "And I'm gonna prove it. Starting Monday, I'mgonna set my mind to school. By then I oughta be up with the cla.s.s. I onlyhave to look a coupla times at a page to get it."

The subst.i.tute paused at the door. "Your last chance, Keeley. Coming orstaying?"

"Staying. Thanks for the help you gave me."

"It was just an investment that didn't pay off," said the subst.i.tute. "ButKeeley..."